Dear Employee,
Please read this entire email as this notification has important information regarding your pay and benefits.
On April 23, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which impact overtime eligibility. The FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labor standards for the United States’ full—and part-time workers.
The Department of Labor announced changes focused on the salary threshold test, which organizations use as a first step to determine if an employee can be exempted (i.e., ‘exempt employee) from the overtime rules. In 2016, the salary threshold was set to $35,068. On July 1, 2024, the salary threshold will increase to $43,888.
Because your current annual salary is less than this threshold, you will transition to salaried, non-exempt status on July 1, 2024, and be eligible for overtime. Below is important information specific to your situation:
Impact on your employment
While this transition affects your status under the FLSA, this change:
- Does not impact your pay. You will continue to be paid salaried over 24 pay periods.
- Does not impact your leave balance or accrual.
- Does not impact your maximum vacation cap.
- Does not impact your use of the Benefit Utilization Form for reporting any leave time taken.
- Does not impact your requirement to complete State Officials and Employee Ethics Act (SOEEA) time reporting.
This transition does impact your ability to earn overtime. Effective July 1, 2024, you are now eligible for overtime. However, please note, that you must have supervisory approval before working overtime.
Time only must be reported to Human Resources if you earned any overtime. Using the standard, non-exempt employee timesheet, you will be responsible for reporting any overtime incurred. Overtime will be administered based on university policy or your respective collective bargaining agreement. The only time that an hourly timesheet will need to be completed is when you work overtime in a given pay period. When this occurs, you should complete the hourly timesheet (including all hours worked and benefits utilized for the pay period), have your supervisor sign the form, then have your timekeeper email the signed form to payroll@niu.edu for processing.
If you experience a job change in the future to a different classification or your salary increases above the current threshold, your status as salaried, non-exempt will be reviewed.
Please contact HumanResources@niu.edu with any questions.
